Hey!

I might have promised to move past marketing/fundraising lessons from the recent US election campaigns, but I just can’t resist passing this article along — The Science Behind Those Obama Campaign E-Mails — from Bloomberg Businessweek.

The Obama digital team, which included 20 writers alone (!), tested every aspect of each proposed email appeal before committing to mass distribution … often as many as 18 variations before picking a winner.

8 Responses to “Hey!”

Dear Tom and Roger, although I do have to admit that I often move your daily emails to my ‘still-to-read-folder’, this one I opened ánd read immediately. And look: I even left a comment!
Thanks for this great insight!
Best, Gerbren

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! I have always thought that the reason most organizations don’t believe in testing is because of the added cost. However, I am starting to wonder if a large part of the “problem” with testing is that it requires additional planning and lead time (it can be hard enough to meet regular deadlines when a project has been held up in committee…).

As always, Agitator, I applaud you for continuing to fight the good fight!

What strikes me about this is the vast amount of resources that the Obama campaign was able to invest up front in this effort. Twenty writers. Oh, please That’s half the number of people we have on our entire staff. There’s something that has been missing in all of the comments on the Obama email phenomena — the hundreds of millions (perhaps several billion) of dollars in free media that POTUS gets every single day. I think that the “more than 20 writers” deetail brings to mind the old comment about the infinite number of monkeys and the infinite number of typewriters. Given enough time, they probably would write the complete works of Shakespeare.

I opened this email because I heard some analysis of the Obama campaign emails and expected your email to cover the same topic. I didn’t open the email because I was intrigued by “Hey!” I hope you’ll somehow account for readers like me. I’m actually a bit disappointed that the email had so little substance.

Hey Tom and Roger! I opened this post because I always open the Agitator, but also because I had read the story on what the most successful subject line of Obama’s campaign was. So …. Imitation still breeds success. Hats off to you both for all the great info you put in our hands. kate